The Journey to the Track: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Preparing for Competition

As we stood on the dirt floor of our trailer, surrounded by tools and equipment, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and nervousness. We were finally ready to take our MR2 out for its maiden voyage, and it was going to be a test like no other. Our team had been working tirelessly to get everything just right, from the newly installed toolbox to the careful loading of weights onto the car's nose.

The trailer itself was a marvel of efficiency, with seven drawers designed to keep our tools organized and within reach. The paint job was a testament to the hard work that had gone into preparing the vehicle for competition. "It's not bad," one team member noted, "it went in pretty easily." The toolbox was secured down to the floor, ensuring that it wouldn't tip over or come loose during transport.

As we worked, our conversation turned to the details of the car's configuration. We had decided on a wide band wiring system, which would provide us with the necessary power for our onboard electronics. "I think we were talking about which size to get," one team member recalled. "Like Home Depot or US general?" The answer was eventually settled upon, and the wiring was carefully installed.

But it wasn't just the car that needed attention – we also had to consider the trailer itself. Our awning was a welcome feature, providing us with shade from the sun as we worked. It was easily recharged via battery-powered controls on the awning arm, making it a breeze to use.

As we finished up our preparations, we took a moment to admire our handiwork. The MR2 was looking sleek and streamlined, its weight carefully balanced to meet our competition requirements. We had lost over 100 pounds since removing unnecessary components like the alternator, but were still adding weights to ensure optimal performance.

Finally, it was time to take our car out for a spin. We pulled the MR2 back into the trailer one last time while I finished up some final wiring work, before carefully loading everything onto the scales. The results were promising – we were at 2272 pounds without any of us inside, with an overall weight of around 5050 pounds.

While we were pleased with our progress, we knew that there was still more to be done. To reach our target weight of 2450 pounds, we added a couple of 10-pound weights to the nose of the car. "It's creeping up," one team member noted, "but we're on the money." With everything in place, we were finally ready to take our MR2 out for its maiden test.

As I write this, our team is busy preparing for the test itself. We'll be taking it slow and easy at first, getting a feel for how the car handles and responding to our inputs. But with any luck, things will be smooth sailing from here on out. And as we look to take on the competition in the World Cup North, one thing is clear: this team is ready to put its skills to the test.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enour backup motor bottom end has arrived so not only are we putting the MR2 all the way together that has been a ton of freaking work but we're also going to try to put a backup spare engine and transmission together on the side just to be as prepared for World Cup as we possibly can jbr has been super swamped I was going to try to have another cast block together but they are short on sleeve material over there is as well getting a new sleeve block from them just wasn't going to happen and I was searching on the old Marketplace once again and I happened to come across a pretty good deal on a bottom end I don't know if you guys remember the last built bottom end I got on Marketplace did not turn out so well had some bent rods in it but luckily the seller got me some new rods dropped that one off the jbr they went through it and that's actually the engine that went the 75 in the MR2 the old Marketplace bottom end coming through so we got another one here this one came from a very uh trustworthy seller was talking to him a lot so this is going to be basically the same setup that was in the car previously when it ran the 75 oh she heavy there she is guys our backup bottom end that is a very clean unit right there nice this does have high compression pistons in it so it's a slightly higher compression than we normally run which isn't too big of a deal if this does not have to be used in the MR2 I am actually going to swap the compression out just to match what's in the car just to make it identical but other than that everything else is the same if you look on the bottom here we got those beefy aluminum rods ready to go so we just got to get an oil pump on this thing uh we only have the one pan I think we're going to try to make another oil pan that matches the same as this one with the same uh bung on it for the return got a head gasket for this thing just got to wait on that head slap that on there and then this thing will be complete and ready to go so we're going to go ahead and get this thing on the stand and it will sit until we get the other parts I'm waiting on to get it all the way together getting the back pressure all done yeah of course you start filming the time I'm going to mess it up hey it's coming out pretty good wrapping around that socket there tell them why you got to put that coil in it uh this is just to dissipate some heat so we don't want sensor seeing, 1300° 14,500 whatever it is uh so yeah the coil just gives it time to dissipate some heat we'll put some gap between here and then that's really all it's for yeah then that runs into the pressure sensor and yep we know how much pressure the exhaust is building yep pretty simple deal so we are getting real close to a first start here on the MR2 right now we are blowing out the fuel lines because we did end up making new lines so we're destroying some alcohol through those and blowing them out just to make sure we get all the rubber debris and everything out of there from when we cut the lines to make new ones because we had to reroute it with our new tunnel here and the lines came up a little short so blowing them all out and we can hook everything up and we should be good to to go hey easy all right guys we got the MR2 lowered back down we got this thing put back all the way together here and I want to show you guys this in the back so if you look right here this is our new oil filter this is a clear view from Clearview filtration. comom and this is pretty cool how it works is the oil comes in through the top here and the oil goes past this screen that you can actually see through this acrylic viewing Port right here then it goes down through that and then back into the engine we have to use a remote oil filter or something like this because we no longer have the factory spot where the standard OEM filter would go on the Block we have two ports coming off the block there that pumps oil out of one and then sucks the oil back in through the other so we have a clear view you'll see these on some really high horsepower and high you know to your race cars it's a very common thing to have and what's nice about this is if your engine starting to to you know come apart you're starting to lose rod bearings you'll see chunks of metal up here through the Clear View viewing Port so if you got a lot of metal in there you know it's probably time to take a look at the engine or you know not make the next pass if that's filled with chunks so another cool thing about it is you can take this little uh deel off right here we have a normal like Tire valve stem and you can hook your air compressor to that it will push all the air down through that screen and it will help reveal any metal or contaminants you have in your oil so got that guy all mounted up while I finished up that back pressure feel going there so that comes out of our manifold through this guy and then into the sensor on top there so we have back pressure hooked up all our egts are working we put some heat shielding over some of the lines that come close to the manifold there like our oil return and this uh return from the Clear View the manifold did help us with some clearance on these ports as well so that was nice because the other manifold this line right here would have been a little problematic but she's all back together there we got the axles in we redid that wastegate dump we had to re aim it down here a little bit so we had to cut and re orientate that some but that's good to go all the coolant lines are hooked up we got the catch cam back in and if you look right up here we got everything back together everything is plugged in as it was that freaking black valve cover looks way better than the unpainted version that we had on there everything is plugged in ready to go we're going to go ahead and prime the fuel pump here and just you know get the fuel up to that guy going into this bucket we can go ahead and align the fuel pump put that on for good and then we can power everything up and give this thing a crank and see if she wants to fire up for us for the first time on the Billet engine so let's go ahead and uh bleed this real quick go ahead and Prim this guy real fast just got a 38 hex on my gun here this guy spinning there we here we go got fuel flowing got thing ripping all right we'll get that on there and uh see if this thing fires up almost forgot the oil boys that would have not been good get some pite on that thing there you go damn dude we almost got everything crossed off we're almost there missing one bro cross that thing oh new harnesses is done done son all right so it has oil trans fluid we just got to install the wing back on it rear engine cover show you them show the people later what that is catch pan back pressure Line's Done Right y it's done that's done rear wing struts needs done alignment backup trans backup engine front beam Tripper if we get to that oh and the mirror delete I was going to do quick little triangles over the spots where the mirrors went once over every bolt we're done boys all right guys all our hard work got her together I just got done doing some final things on the laptop calibrating the TPS just little things like that we're going to go ahead and crank this thing over with the ignition off just to make sure we're building fuel pressure and oil pressure we're going to see if our Clear View will fill up here and we're also on 16 volts now so remember that we also have that upgraded starter from uh Carwood and it already ripped before so now on 16 volts I think this thing's going to crank really fast which should be pretty cool so we're going to turn her over and make sure we're building pressure then we'll go hot fire it up yes good when you are ready keep an eye on the Clear View here dude that thing we're going to run a six on that starter dude it's probably turning like 400 RPM probably sounded like it was idling on that thing all right just double check everything for weeks and Clear View filled up yeah no leaks all right theoretically should fire right up ready yes sir go for it oh I freaking go boys fired right up y freaking solid dude sounds familiar but it's kind of cool with the bill Bo smells familiar just a lot more money you can smell in this one Sol dude yeah we had a steady flow oil coming through that it looked pretty cool cuz you can like see little air bubbles flowing through the Clear View nice saw 110 PSI oil pressure yep when it started up turbo speeds working I wanted to verify that it's good what was she reading it idle about 5900 RPM 5900 so going to turn that thing to 100K Plus on the track for sure freaking solid dude nice man all right well let's put some water in it verify it's got no leaks and then go to the track yep we're trying to test tonight boys we don't got much time yeah we'll give it a final more once over not and bolt check the entire car again and then we should be good to go cool so can I use the Smart car to pull it out I've been wanting to test that out yeah things sound so funny sound like every every World get out the way get out of the way we're in the finals we got to go exactly what we're going to be doing World Cup baby works great yeah that not might need a little stiffen it up but it's not bad it'll work right until we slam on the brakes one time yeah was that you hitting the brakes yeah okay I'm making sure I'm like dude these new brakes are locking up all right we got water in there just going to fire up one more time make sure we don't got any leaks let's freaking go Billet block is up and operational she sounds good yeah should be ready a couple more things to button up and then uh we good to go yeah we just got to get the wide band in there as well yeah wide band couple more zip ties and then uh load up some tool put it in the trailer and see if it'll go down the track Y and speaking of the trailer it's just about wrapped up so I have to go run and pick that thing up so we can get this thing in the trailer and to the track oh shoot got the awning on the trailer now that is going to be so nice hey a little bit less sun on the head right yes that is awesome very cool so we're back over here at right trailers to get this thing picked up it's been over here for a couple days got a little Improvement inside for more Organization for your tools yes sir oh yeah check it out we got the toolbox installed I think really yeah to not bad for a rattle can job absolutely I know we were talking back and forth like which size to get which one to get from Like Home Depot whatever that US general one looks like it fits in there pretty good we got seven drawers so yeah honestly with the paint it's not bad it went in pretty easily uh secure it down to the floor I really think you could roll the trailer over and the toolbox is going to stay in place hopefully we don't do that but trailer is secured yeah they said they bolted it down to the floor it can't tip over anything like that which which is good keep the trailer clean the night when you go to the track yep I'm scared just to walk in it cuz we're standing on this dirt right now they got it all cleaned up in there and then we got the electric jack on the front here yep it's got manual override a light on it it's all hooked up to the yellow top battery that's inside the trailer so we put a battery over here as well yep they locked it there we go it's secured the top is secured don't need anyone stealing our brand new battery not at all so yep you guys will be set to go and already and that's a battery powered awning so it's really easy to recharge it all the controls are on the awning arm so simple easy to use awesome well I appreciate it guys yep we're GL glad to see you again for sure yep getting us all ready to go and we are just about ready to hopefully test tonight and then off to World Cup North right yep there you go all right up to Maryland you guys have fun be safe we appreciate the business thank you man so we pulled the MR2 back in real quick while I finishing up the wide band wiring right now we're going to go ahead and put this thing on the scales because for our class we have to way 2450 and we took a lot of weight out of this thing the MR2 was already pretty light before even with me in it but after we got rid of the alternator and a ton of other stuff it actually dropped some weight between the brakes and all of that I think we lost easily over 100 lb so hopefully we put some more weight back into it with the addition of the weights on the weight plate there we have 40 lbs stacked on the front the Billet block is probably going to be a little heavier than the cast OEM one was so we just got to find out where this thing is at I have a 50 lb sandbag right here as well because we don't have water in the ice box and we're down a little bit on gas so those completely topped off is about 70 lb so just set that on there to get a rough idea of where we're at go ahead and drop her down got the scales all zeroed out here and we'll see what it's at is that all the way down it's all the way down oh we're looking pretty good she is light guys that's with weight stacked on the nose we are at 2272 without me in it we are about 5050 on the weight we still have a little bit more weight over the rear so we're going to want to probably add even more weight to the nose if we need it no it's sounded like Wood's driving for buddy sounds like why it's driving D we got to make weight y sorry you too scrawny my guy we 2444 oh dude we almost got our perfect though pretty close D we're shooting for 2450 it doesn't get much closer than that so we'll probably hey it's creeping up we're like on the money so we'll probably just put maybe two more 10 lb weight weits on the nose cuz that won't hurt us and be good to go first time this girl's been in the new trailer yep it's been a hell of the last few days boys we got our loaded up we are ready to test tonight I think we're going to wrap this video up now guys you guys are going to have to wait and see how testing goes and the next one with the MR2 is up and running going to get this thing strapped down we got some other stuff to grab we see you guys in the next video\n"